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Attorney Group Honors Longtime Member

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS

Roland D. "Chip" Waller was honored this week by the West Pasco Bar Association for more than 30 years of service to the legal organization.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: July 2, 2008

TRINITY -- For over two decades, Roland D. "Chip" Waller has orchestrated the West Pasco Bar Association's annual installation-of-officers dinner so that it ran like clockwork. It began on time, speakers were not allowed to become too long-winded and it never ran on too long.

Under Waller's hand, there were no surprises.

Until Tuesday night. At the association's dinner at Heritage Springs Country Club in Trinity, the unsuspecting Waller was taken aback when his colleagues presented him with a plaque and gave him a standing ovation honoring his 30-plus years of organizing the annual event.

No one is sure when Waller took over the organizing helm, not even Waller himself. He estimated he might have begun in 1973 when he was then a young associate with New Port Richey lawyer James Altman. At that time, the bar association had about 14 members. Today, it has a membership of 166.

According to Waller's legal partner in the New Port Richey firm of Waller, Mitchell & Barnett, over the years, Thomas W. Mitchell Jr., Waller has put a lot of thought, organization and work into making all the events run smoothly.

"It takes a lot of planning," Mitchell said, noting Waller was at the helm before e-mail, when members had to be contacted by postal mail. Waller handles booking the event site, establishing the menu and preparing a letter to members informing them of the dinner. Additionally, he arranges for entertainment and speaker.

According to Waller's paralegal, Milli Osborne, his office began working on this year's event at the beginning of May, almost two months before the dinner.

Waller's skills have made for peace of mind among his colleagues, said attorney Larry Hart, a long-time acquaintance. "All anyone has needed to say was, 'Will you handle the banquet?' If the answer was yes, you didn't have to worry about a thing."

Waller also gets high marks from both Hart and partner Mitchell for his legal skills. "Chip is a genius," said Hart. "He is one of the outstanding leaders of the areas in which he practices."

Waller is board certified in real estate law and also practices probate and estate planning. He enjoys a statewide reputation in his fields, said Mitchell.

His Southern charm covers a first-rate legal mind, Hart observed. "Chip has done with that southern-boy Florida accent what Matlock did with that phrase, 'Just one more question,' " he noted.

Mitchell was referring to the television lawyer character portrayed by North Carolina native Andy Griffith, Atlanta defense attorney Ben Matlock, whose folksiness hid a brilliant legal genius that almost always managed to get his clients off the hook.

He might be ready to turn over the organizing to someone else next year, Waller said, but he will always be loyal to the bar association. With characteristic humor, he noted the association is like "an irreverent son" who sometimes has to have the error of his ways pointed out by Waller, the father.

But he quickly added, "I am committed to the bar association. That doesn't mean I agree with everything they do, but that doesn't mean I don't love them."

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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